Year 6

Traditionally part of a primary school, Year 6 at the British Overseas School is part of the secondary school. As such it is a transitionary year: an opportunity for children to make the adjustment to life as students.
Elements of that transition include:

• A longer school day
• A ‘secondary lite’ timetable – 10 subjects instead of the 14 of Year 7
• A different teacher for every subject
• Moving to different rooms according to the timetable
• Having a Form Tutor not a Class Teacher
• Using a locker in which to keep their belongings
• Mid-Year and End-of-Year examinations

The ‘secondary lite’ timetable on offer for Year 6 gives students the opportunity to secure their foundations in English and mathematics, as well as to continue their work in humanities (history, geography and religious studies), French and Chinese. In addition, science becomes a more prominent area of study.

We began this experiment with Year 6 in 2014-15 and have found it to be very successful. Our students are better prepared for Year 7 in terms of their academic foundations as well as their organizational skills.
All of our baseline testing suggests that students who have progressed through this system have reached higher academic standards than their predecessors.